The present invention relates to overbed tables for use by patients in hospitals and other health care facilities and, in particular, to an improved overbed table which provides functional versatilty previously unavailable in the health care field.
In hospital rooms and other patient room environments, it is desirable to provide a substantial amount of horizontal surface area for use as work surface for medical personnel and available surface for use by patients. Since the typical patient is confined to bed for substantial periods of time during a hospital stay, it has been found necessary to provide some means for bringing useable horizontal surfaces to the patient. This has resulted in a variety of overbed tables. A typical overbed table has a "C"-shaped configuration, the lower arm of the "C" comprising a wheeled base, the side or vertical section of the "C" comprising a support tube and a mechanism for raising and lowering the overbed table, and the upper horizontal section of the "C" comprising a generally flat horizontal surface. In its typical use, an overbed table is wheeled up to a patient bed. The base portion of the overbed table slides under the bed and the horizontal useable surface is adjusted at some position over the bed and accessable to the patient. The vertical section of the C-shaped overbed table approaches or abuts one side edge of the bed.
In the past, overbed tables have suffered from a number of disadvantages. Typically, the work or useable surface available to medical personnel and to patients is insufficient and becomes cluttered with food, medical supplies, flowers, cards and reading materials. When the overbed table is required to be used, e.g., for supporting a food tray, the items on the overbed table must be moved or rearranged. Typical prior art overbed tables are those described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 1,472,570, 2,848,290, 3,089,743, 3,504,643, 3,854,428 and 4,077,333.
Other attempts to develop improved overbed tables have resulted in impractical, complex and relatively expensive products which are awkward and difficult to use.
It is, therefore, an object of the present invention to avoid the problems associated with prior art attempts to develop overbed tables and to provide a simple and easy to use overbed table which is not subject to the problems described above.
Another object of the present invention is to provide an overbed table which provides sufficient horizontal surface for use by medical personnel or by patients without rearranging or relocating items already placed on the overbed table.
Another object of the present invention is to provide an overbed table which provides useable horizontal work surface for medical personnel without disturbing patient or personal belongings.
A further object of the present invention is to provide a vertical lift mechanism which permits easy adjustment of the vertical height of, e.g., an overbed table or other adjustable device.